Wyre proposes new DBS checks on taxi drivers

Taxi drivers in Wyre could be required to register with the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)’s update service, documents have revealed.

The council said the move would ensure it has the ‘most up to date information about the offending behaviour of the drivers it licences’ after a previous annual check was replaced by a three-yearly one, creating a ‘gap’.

It is one of several proposed changes to the borough’s taxi licensing policy, which is set to go out to public consultation, should councillors finalise it on Thursday.

The consultation would last for six weeks, with any comments being considered before coming into effect from April 1.

Other changes include reducing the grace period for drivers who fail to renew from six months to one; making MOTs a requirement, where vehicles are currently exempt if they pass a council taxi test; banning tinted windows to ‘deter unscrupulous drivers’; enforcing basic safeguarding and child safety awareness; and banning the use of vehicles that have previously been classed as written off.

In a report, service director for health and wellbeing Mark Broadhurst said: “Licensed taxi drivers provide an important service for residents and visitors to the borough, who in turn should be confident their driver is a fit and proper person and that the vehicle is safe and suitable to their needs.

“The revised policy seeks to strengthen this approach and, in the spirit of transparency, sets out clearly the expectation on drivers, vehicle proprietors, and operators who wish to be licensed by Wyre Council.”